‘Raazi ‘ – A Surreal Spy story

AFTER Watching the Hindi movie RAAZI recently , I felt a bit cheated —- unlike what was alluded to in the trailers , an honest riveting Spy thriller , turned out to be a sob story of a lady spy who finally regretted what she did for her country .

It is a Good movie overall , with watchable performances with a nicely told story , but I left like I was intellectually duped and deceived by the makers of RAAZI and I will tell u why .

It is a nicely packaged pulp fiction ( a bundle of lies ) but the glaring hypocrisy is in the attempt to pass it off like a real story .
It is based on a well acclaimed novel by Harinder Sikka , called ‘ Calling Sehmat ‘ , which is supposed to be a fictionalised version of a ‘true story ‘ ( there is no historical evidence to prove the veracity of the story , though ) .

SINCE I have not read it myself , I can’t vouch how much has been reared from the original novel into the movie ; but by virtue of my little sense of history , I can claim that the story in the movie is a plain figment of imagination of a pacifist , a mountain of a surreal story balanced over a mottled straw of actual facts .

It makes you uncomfortable when lies are peddled in the most convincing way and vetted by movies made by the likes of Meghna Gulzar , the maker of “TALVARS “ which was a much researched movie .
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There were things which were difficult to digest for me —

The world knows how rogue Pakistani army has gone , but if we have to believe this movie , they were a nice bunch of ethical soldiers once upon a time in 1971 .

The Pakistani army Officials , particularly the brood of Brigadier Syed , the benevolent patriarch of the family where the ‘ Indian babyfaced spy’ Sehmat infiltrates by marrying his Armyman son , has been shown literally with haloes round their heads , dripping with gentlemanly virtues and chivalry .

But the Real history tells us that the actual face of 1971 Pakistani Army was the thuggish Gen Tikka Khan , the “ Butcher of Bengal “ under whose governorship , the most infamous “operation searchlight “was unleashed on the Bengalis of East Pakistan ; in nine months, the beastly Pakistani army murdered 3 million people , raped 5-6 lakh women : the Islamic militia had openly declared that the Bengaali women are war booty , hence meant to be raped , impregnated and enslaved . army camps of east Pakistan were overcrowded military brothels .
The ethnic cleansing of the Hindus and targeted genocide of the intellectual class was done with utmost savagery .
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Curiously , In this movie , the Pakistanis are shown as victims of Indian aggression and subterfuge ; like vulnerable sitting ducks waiting for our own vily ‘ babyfaced Indian Matahari ‘ who stalks and stings them with masterly precision .
unfortunately , the wannabe Black Widow , gets frequent moral pangs , and turns into the quintessential “ typical Indian wife “who dotes on her cute Pakistani husband ; alas the ruthless RA&W spies lay siege of a market place and detonate a bomb that kills her Husband , leaving her crying incessantly , and thereafter she returns back and spends the rest of her life like an emotional wreck !!
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In the quest to humanise the enemy , they belittled the patriotic fervour and true spirit of a real Spy .

BTW , the fact is RAW never engaged any women for espionage in the seventies : infact they started employing women for non field work only since 1972 .
And when finally they were inducted for some serious spying , they created problems for RAW because of their alleged inability to maintain a low profile and their alleged habits of dropping names and throwing their weight around.
Thereafter , the RAW decided never to experiment with WOMEN spies .

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